This is turning into a traffic blog

Call me a nerd, but I could write about Bangkok traffic all day and not get bored.

Today I am mostly wondering why in the West people wear hyper-protective leathers on their motorcycles when here in Bangkok a mini-skirt and flipflops will suffice. Especially when riding sidesaddle behind your boyfriend and not holding on!

Otherwise, the taxidrivers of Bangkok are their usual idiosyncratic selves. My favourite so far was the one who had bright red and yellow fleecy seat covers that said MERRY CHRISTMAS! on the headrest covers. “Haha!” I laughed as I got in. “Merry Christmas!”

“Haha!” he replied. “Merry Christmas!” This was our entire conversation from the hotel to the hospital. When I pointed out it wasn’t Christmas yet, he looked very hurt indeed, so I just carried on with my un-seasonal greetings.  I liked him, though. He had big Elvis sunglasses on, even though it was quite cloudy.

My least favourite taxi driver so far has been the old man who came from the ‘drive very close to the car in front then brake alarmingly’ school of motoring. This elite club actually has many members here. I suspect that one of their strict rules is “always make sure the clippy-in bit of your seatbelts is tucked under the seat thereby preventing passenger from being lulled into false sense of security that their journey is safe.”

Traffic aside, I am getting into the swing of all things Thai, and can now say ‘hello’ and ‘thankyou’ quite convincingly. I went on the SkyTrain and subway by myself, which was fun. The subway issues plastic tokens instead of tickets, and you pass them over a sensor to get onto the platform. Guess who was trying to push the token into a non-existant slot? Anyway I got the hang of it in the end, and only got off one stop early. How I managed this when the next station is clearly announced in both English and Thai is beyond me, but it did mean I got another taxi ride, this time in a bright pink one!

Oh look at me! Talking about transport again! I went off on a small adventure on Sunday, and got a bit lost. It was good fun, though. I found a shopping mall where a huge Scalextric championship was taking place, and then passed a Modelling College, where, in full view of the street a gaggle of Thai supermodel-types were strutting their stuff and learning to do catwalk twirls. Interestingly, the college also taught not only acting but also ‘personality’!

The moon here is huge, and right overhead, and last night I spotted Orion, which isn’t visible til much later in the year in Wales. There are also what looks like two planets visible to the east. Is this possible? All suggestions gratefully recieved.

Right, I think the internet is about to conk out here, so that’s all from me for now. Love to you all xxx

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